Well, I hear something else. It's the Hug Plane, and it's coming in for a landing.

Monday, July 14

A very short movie review.

This was one of the most jaw-droppingly awesome moviegoing experiences I've had in a long, long time. I know this outs me as a big softie, but I nearly cried at the end, it was that affecting and amazing.

It's a shoo-in to win the "Best Animated Feature" category at next year's Oscars, but to me that doesn't seem good enough; this is the kind of film that needs a Best Picture nomination, and yes, I know it's only July.

If you haven't seen it yet, go forth and do so, tonight, unless you're an Eddie Murphy fan who has vowed to bring the rest of your life to a crashing halt until you get a chance to see "Meet Dave."

9 comments:

It's IMDB rating is 8.9 out of 10 with almost 36,000 votes, placing it at #20 of their top 250 movies of all time. I planned on seeing it regardless (because I'm a sucker for cute robots and animated movies in general), but I'll feel more confident finding a seat knowing that 36,000 people and Doug gave the thumbs up.

I like smart animated movies, and have come to expect and largely accept that there will be a left of center theme -- which is fine I guess, but this was brutal. I suspect it makes for a great sequel to "Inconvenient Truth" and serves to affirm for those of the philosophical view point that the sky is falling, capitalism is the root of all evil on earth and we are a bunch of hopeluss F***-ups bent on destroying the planet (the hopeless F***-up part I agree with). It was interminable -- somehow managing to throw into question the space-time continuum as we know it and turned 2 hours into 20.

I almost cried too, then I realized this was the equivalent of my computer freezing-up in the middle of working on a project and losing all my progress so then I got really pissed (AND NO THIS IS NOT A SPOILER IT IS AN IRRELEVANT TANGENT).

I thought the first 35 minutes could be extracted and forever shown in classrooms as an example of perfect cinema. After that I think it lost some steam and became a pretty "normal" film that utilized a fe brilliant sequences (the space "dance" sequence was gorgeously designed.) The end was cute, and I like how the filmmakers employed all of the "2001" references, but Ido think the flaw was that it set the bar so high, so early, that it flied and died. It's still better than nearly everything out there though. B+

Still need to see it, but I really don't want a screening chock-full of noisy kids. Would a late show be better than a matinée?

That said, I just want to point one thing out to the National Review-reading, Dittohead crowd: Capitalism does NOT equal Consumerism. The US has a capitalist-influenced economy, but the massively socialized risk in the financial sector alone far and away disqualifies it for being capitalist. READ Adam Smith, don't just pull quotes from Wikipedia or Boortz about him.

Well, I will assume that National Review, Dittohead stuff was aimed toward me. For whatever it is worth, I am a NYT, Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker reading and NPR listening libertaraian. Unlike some, I read and listen to that which challenges, rather than affirms and comforts. Also, indeed, capitalism does not equal consumerism -- indeed it does not. Not sure why that needed to be pointed out, but thanks anyway. Also, the US economy hardly adheres to free-market capitalist orthodoxy, again, not sure what that had to do with my post as I did not make such an assertion, but again thanks for the observation.

"[Your raw sexual magnetism is so overpowering that I don't know what I might do around you, so for my own safety it's probably best if you s]tay at least 200 feet away from me at all times."
— Erin Andrews, ESPN